Lie of My Life

11 The Lake

Carter's stash of snacks and his classic rock playlist made it easy enough not to speak for a while. But there were only so many cheezits I could stuff in my face and only so much ACDC one could bear before I had to open my mouth and say something. Still, I couldn't do it. Chickening out, I let the awkward silence drag on and on until we were an hour into the trip and Carter took it upon himself to make the first move.

"Okay," he said finally, a tone of frustration in his voice that made me wonder how long he'd been waiting for me to say something as well. "I'm not driving four hours like this. What's going on, Ava?"

He looked my way and I could see something in his eyes past the frustration. It gave me pause. Was that... fear?

"I'm worried that I- when we-" he stumbled and then sighed. "Did I screw everything up, Ava?"

I blinked at him in surprise.

"You?" I asked, shocked. "Did you screw everything up? No. Carter, I was worried that I did."

"Why would you think that?" he asked, looking my way again, genuinely confused.

"You wouldn't even look at me at breakfast and you ran out with Aaron as fast as you could. You were ignoring me and I thought-"

"What? Ava, I'm not ignoring you. Emma sprung this trip on us last minute and I had work I had to get done. I thought you'd understand given that's why you sprinted out of my apartment Saturday morning."

I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment. I couldn't argue with that.

"I'm sorry, Carter," I said quietly. "I don't know why I did that. I just... I guess I freaked out a little."

He smiled over at me then.

"Hey, I'm the King of the morning after runout, right?" he joked. "It's okay, Ava. I'm not mad. I just... are we okay?"

I nodded and he turned his attention back to the road. The silence that followed wasn't nearly as tense now that the air had been cleared between us. But I felt that there was more to be said.

"What do we do now?" I asked quietly. His smile vanished but he did not look upset, just pensive. "I mean, I don't think either of us can deny that it was... good. Like, really good. Better than either of us expected... right?"

He turned his dazzling smirk upon me again and I felt my knees actually wobble despite my seated position.

"I'd say that's an understatement," he answered.

"So... now that we know how great it is, do we just go back to how things were? To being friends?"

"Is that what you want?"

"I-I want..." but I hesitated here, unsure of what I wanted myself.

"Look, Ava, we're two people with our hands full with work, right? I mean you're running your own company and I've got more than my fair share of gigs. We're friends who enjoy spending time together, trust each other, love each other. So, if we want to blow off steam here or there, I can't see any harm in it. I mean, if you ever need an itch scratched again, I'm around."

He tossed me a grin and added a wink and I felt myself laughing at the cheesiness of it.

"Neither of us are looking for anything serious, least of all with each other, so we can just have fun, right?" he added, looking back at the road.

"Yeah," I agreed with a smile though I felt a heaviness in my heart I would rather ignore at the nonchalant simplicity of the proposed arrangement. "Of course. I mean, it doesn't have to ruin our friendship."